1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a steel cord winder used for winding a steel cord from a steel cord braiding machine around a spool and, more particularly, to an automatic steel cord winder, designed to automatically and continuously drive a spool assembly, consisting of a plurality of spools, while feeding the spool assembly into the winder body, moving the assembly to a designated position between the head and tail stocks of the winder body, setting the spool assembly at the designated position, sequentially winding the steel cord around the spools of the assembly, and dispensing the spool assembly from the winder body when the spools are completely filled with the steel cord.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, steel cords are widely and effectively used as reinforcements for rubber products, such as wheel tires and conveyor belts. In the prior art, the steel cords are produced as follows. That is, a carbon steel wire rod emanating from pre-processes, such as a scale removing process and a patenting heat treatment process, is plated with brass, thus having an improved adhesiveness for rubber. The brass-plated wire rod is, thereafter, stepwisely drawn by a wire draw bench until the wire rod becomes a brass-plated, drawn wire having a desired diameter. A plurality of wires from the wire drawing process are twisted together at a predetermined pitch by a cord braiding machine, thus forming a desired steel cord. The steel cord is, thereafter, wound around a spool by a cord winder.
A conventional cord winder, used for winding the steel cord from the cord braiding machine around a spool, comprises a movable guider which is operated by a lead screw to reciprocate within a predetermined range while guiding the steel cord from the braiding machine to a spool, thus allowing the cord to be evenly wound around the spool. The cord winder also has two stocks, a head stock and a tail stock. The two stocks rotate the spool while holding both ends of the spool during a cord winding operation of the winder. The movable guider and the two stocks are held on a winder body.
In the conventional cord winder, only one spool is installed at a designated position between the two stocks, and so the winder is problematic in that it forces a worker to always stand in the vicinity of the winder and to regrettably consume labor and time while changing a full spool with an empty spool.
In addition, since the spool is standardized and is rotated at a high speed, it is necessary for a worker to frequently check the cord winding operation of the spool in addition to the frequent change of spools. This forces the worker to grow tired of managing the cord winder and limits the number of winders effectively managed by a worker.
In an operation of the conventional winder, it is also necessary to stop the braiding machine every time a full spool is changed with an empty spool. The cord winder thus fails to achieve a continuous operation of the braiding machine and results in a reduction in productivity while producing and winding the steel cords.
In an effort to overcome the above problems, a multi-spool cord winder, in which a multi-spool, consisting of three or more spools, is installed at a designated position between the head and tail stocks and sequentially winds the steel cord on the three spools, is proposed and used. Such a multi-spool cord winder somewhat lengthens the interval of changing the spools.
However, the multi-spool cord winder is also problematic in that it requires a worker to stand in the vicinity of the winder during an operation of the winder so as to change the multi-spools. In a brief description, the conventional cord winders for steel cord braiding machines are designed so that a changing of a full spool with an empty spool is performed manually, thus forcing a worker to always stand in the vicinity of the cord winder and to frequently change the spools during an operation of the winder.